bastard, you don't pay income tax. Deserve a huge property tax. I have no idea but property taxes are county based in Florida, which I am sure you already knew. I think the homestead exemption is similarly done at the county level.
Anyone especially strong with lawn care? I bought a house 8 months ago and my yard is infested with dandelions. Wondering if I'm going to have to on lawn service.
will take a season or 2, get a little metal weed puller, get the roots, water well, get your grass goin good and it'll happen without you droppin 500 a year on trugreen
Nothing to be scared of with carpenter bees. As others have said, get a tennis racket and go to town. I lived in a cedar siding house and killed about 50 of them last summer. Sold the house before they started flying this year.
Regarding the taxes, you will pay a prorated amount for the balance of the year (or until it's time for your county to do the reassessment...I forget exactly). regarding the homestead exemption, you tax commissioners website will have that info. I'd check now. No clue on how much you will save, but it's worth it.
if your closing attorney didnt do the homestead exemption at probate for you then your real estate agent sucked in picking them (or you are a rube)
Not necessarily a bad thing. 2 options 1. Pull them up and let your grass stay high (weeds need sun to grow) so that the weeds get no sunlight 2. Apply a weed and feed ( read the label to ensure that dandelion are covered)
Under contract with a house and find out today if there is an oil tank buried under the driveway. Really hoping they don't find anything as it'd most likely push back my closing date.
how much is it to pay a nice young hard working lad and his brother to sand/restain my deck? 500ish sq feet vs. how much time would it take me, my dad, and a case of beer?
Great news. No oil tank. This means our closing date of May 29th is till a Go. Very pumped to finally get the keys.
Wife and I have started saving for our first house. My goal has always been to seriously start looking when our current lease is up in about 15 months. We will have saved quite a bit, but I'm not sure we'll get to 20% if we want to be in a decent neighborhood where we work. How drastically should I try to avoid PMI? Push off buying a house at all costs until we can save 20%? I'm nervous about coming up say 5% short and every lender convincing me that it's good enough so that they can loan me money.
If you don't have the full 20%, get an 80% first and the remainder on a second. You won't have PMI and you can pay off the second as soon as you can.
As you know, 20% down will allow you to avoid PMI with a conventional mortgage, but that only applied to LTV, not CLTV. You can get an 80% LTV first mortgage and use a second to absorb the remainder of the loan balance needed, while allowing you to avoid PMI (bc the first mortgage is capped at 80% LTV). Lenders have CLTV (combined loan to value) guidelines, most are at 90%, some as high as 95%. Combining a first and second may add a pricing risk layer to the first, so be mindful of that, but it generally isn't too impactful, unless you get up to 95% CLTV. In a case like yours, lets say you save up 15% for the down payment, you could get an 80% first and a 5% second. You could then knock the second out with no penalty and be left with the single 80% first with no PMI you were shooting for. You could even get a HELOC second for the 5% or 10%, pay if off, but leave it open for future access to capital, should you need it for an improvement or emergency and the interest is tax deductible.
This is my situation for next summer when our lease is up. I have good earnings and credit for a loan but but I don't have a lot in savings to get to 20% easily. I could cash out my 401k, IRA and ESPP but that makes me nervous. A mortgage guy (who wanted my business) said it would make more sense to do 10% down so I still had cash reserves so was curious what advice you get on this topic. With most condos in Chicago that are in safe neighborhoods and not a shoe box starting at $350k, having $70K in savings to put on a deposit is easier said then done.
I'm in a similar situation in DC, but if you want a non-basement level 2 bedroom you're looking at prices starting at 500k. I need to decide if I should tap a huge chunk of my resources to avoid PMI or do I stay more liquid and just accept that PMI lifestyle.
I was going to have 20% saved up to put down to avoid the pmi but after talking things over we're doing 10%. This way instead of bringing $72k to closing I'm just bringing $35k and leaving the other half alone or for stuff for the new house. My pmi is only like $100 month. After I'm in the house for a year or two, I should have another $30-40k saved up. My lender can restructure my loan for any amount I pay over $10k for $125. Plan is to pay that $30-40k when I have it in a couple years to the mortgage, get it restructured to knock out the pmi and lower my monthly payment.
I'm about to walk away from a house in Vienna and my thinking is that you'll want the liquidity to fix all the shit your greedy fucking seller won't repair.
In a race to save up 20% while they're down. Hoping they don't go up too much in the next 6-12 months
i had about 14% down and my rate is around 4.5 because they lump sum'd PMI upfront. its basically free.
Called the A/C guy to get annual maintenance. He comes out and gives some ridiculous number on how much work needs to be done. I told him i would think about it. A couple days go by and i speak to him on the phone and tell him that im not ready to spend that kind of money. We talk a little bit more and all the sudden i get the price down to 25% of the original quote. Anyone else feel like people are always trying to rip them off on repairs etc?
Sometimes. I do a lot of stuff myself so most quotes sound high to me. But people have to make a living too i guess. Luckily I have childhood friends that do HVAC/electrical/landscape so I trust them not to screw me too bad.
Seems like a lot of people in this thread are overly hellbent on avoiding PMI on their first home purchase. 401k/retirement funds should never be touched in a non-emergency. 10% down with some cash on the side is sensible given the unpredictable nature of homeownership and you'll likely have an opportunity to refi in a few short years.
If you want them gone, it's take a little coin, but nothing crazy. Buy the liquid spectricide weed killer. Hit your yard 3-4 times this summer. mow right before a rain, then once weeds start growing spray the spectricide. It would help if you bag to keep some of the seeds from getting back into the lawn. You're never going to totally prevent seeds form making into your yard so the key to a weed free lawn ins a pre-emergent herbicide. If you want to get really serious, find your local John Deer Landscapes store or similar type store. The Scott's shit at Home Depot is an overpriced bullshit product.
I use the rubber rings instead of the wax. Rubber is much better and not as messy if you fuck it up on your first time replacing one. Haven't used a wax ring in like 10 years.
Yeah, I've just never made the switch. I learned wax and have stayed with it. Not to mention the old guys in my office all swear the rubber breaks down.
There is no such thing as a restructure, they'd be refinancing your loan and you're at the mercy of where the market is then. It also doesn't make any sense to dump 40k into a refinance when you can invest that money and get returns much greater than the pmi that you'd be paying.
Just put in an offer for a condo. Still #teamrentandinvest but the apartment I've rented for the last year is up for sale. It's dirt cheap and I plan on using it as a rental property eventually as it's walking distance of a college.
Ok back me off the ledge, guise. Got our inspection report back this morning. Areas of concern: This is my first time buying a house so tell me to quit being a faggot if I'm overreacting. A/C needs to be checked. System kept tripping the breaker yesterday - probably a minor fix but it was aged at 26 years Water heater needs to be replaced and relocated Small area of active termites (think the seller is aware since they offered to provide a termite letter and bond) Flue pipe was sealed incorrectly Discovered the house is EIFS Stucco and not traditional stucco
Got my fence quoted last night, about $4600 total, give or take. Only about $1000 of that should be our responsibility, as everything is directly on the property line, and the majority of it is considered to be the neighbor's responsibility, due to the way it is facing. HOA says we can get it done and then give the HOA the invoices for the neighbor's portions to let them collect it for us. I'm not going to hold my breath that we ever get paid, but it needs to be replaced badly, so I will consider it part of the reno costs for the house and be pleasantly surprised if I ever see a dime from the neighbors.